For decades, storekeeper and postmaster James Andrew Blain was a towering figure in Gilford. He was respected and beloved, and his store was the focus of the village’s commercial life.
Blain was born in 1852 in Castlewellan, County Down, Northern Ireland. He was well educated as a youth, and very literate. He was still a teen when he found employment as a schoolteacher and was still serving in that capacity when he emigrated from Ireland in 1875, aged 21.
Arriving in Canada, Blain made a beeline for Gilford, took up residence with the family of William Neilly, and immediately began working as a clerk in Thomas Maconchy’s store. The sequence of events leads one to believe Blain’s emigration was carefully orchestrated, that he either had some previous connection — familial or otherwise with Neilly or Maconchy — or was answering a ‘help wanted’ posting for an educated individual.
Whatever the circumstances, the move worked out for the young man, probably better than he could ever have dared to imagine.
With his intelligence, work ethic and character, Blain gained Maconchy’s approval and respect. How do we know this? Because on Jan. 4, 1882, Blain married Maconchy’s beloved daughter, 26-year-old Helen. The newlyweds took up residence in the apartment above the store (known as the Emerald Tower because the exterior staircase accessing it was shrouded by creeping vines). Unfortunately, living in the apartment wasn’t ideal because townsfolk would bang on the door at all hours, requesting to be served in the store below.
The Blains began their family later that year, on Nov 12, 1882, with the arrival of a son. They named him Thomas in honour of Helen’s father and James’s benefactor.
By 1885, Thomas Maconchy was approaching 80 years of age and finally ready to give up the store. On Jan. 7, he sold it, along with several village lots, to Blain for the sum of $800. Just four months later, on May 2, Gilford lost its founder and longtime storekeeper when Maconchy died.
Like his father-in-law, Blain was infused with an entrepreneurial spirit and had his fingers in several pies. For many years, he operated a cheese factory and creamery with some success, using the rail line to ship product as far away as Toronto. But it was the store that remained the focus of his attention, and he proved a remarkably adept storekeeper, with a mind for business and a warm personality that made patrons feel welcome and respected.
Blain ran the store for more than three decades, bowing out in 1919 due to old age. After almost 60 years in the family, the store passed to new owners.
Blain died in 1931, with Helen following him eight years later. The store to which he dedicated much of his life still stands, though its days as a mercantile have passed.
